A young lady long familiar to central Maine sports fans has been hired as women’s soccer coach at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

Waterville native Deb Biche will replace Lee Allen, who was the program’s first and only coach until Biche was hired.

Mike McDevitt, St. Joseph’s acting athletic director, couldn’t be happier with Biche’s appointment.

“We are ecstatic she is going to be working with us,” he said. “It is a tremendous opportunity for the school.”

The position is a part-time one, but Biche is so eager to coach, McDevitt said, she will find work to complement the position.

“Deb impressed upon me that she wanted to coach,” he said, “so she will see to it she can do it.”

For his part, McDevitt said Biche “covers all the things, as an athletic director, as a coach and as a parent, you want as a role model.

“She is a great athlete and a great student. She is only 23 years old, and this is her first coaching experience, but she has the maturity of someone older than that, and she is going to be a great college coach.”

McDevitt said Lee Allen “was so well-respected and liked, there was a concern that whoever we brought in, it would be a natural letdown. But I think Deb will continue where Lee left off, and even take us to newer heights.”

Biche, a 1988 WHS graduate, will be remembered by eastern Mainers as a little fireball who, at 5-foot-3, ran the offense for the Waterville girls basketball team and was a four-year starter for its highly respected soccer teams of the mid-’80s.

After high school, she attended Plymouth (N.H.) State College where she became one of that institution’s best soccer players.

A four-year starter for the Panthers, she was a National Soccer Coaches Association of America First Team All-American in 1992, and NCAA Woman Athlete of the Year state honoree.

Biche was also selected twice as Little East Conference Player of the Year.

While earning All-America status in soccer, Biche was also starring in the classroom. When she graduated from Plymouth in 1992, she had a 3.84 cumulative grade point average on a 4.0 scale.

In the five years of the women’s soccer program, St. Joseph’s has a 50-31-5 record and three Western Maine Athletic Conference championships.

Last year, the Lady Monks went 13-6-1 and were runnersup in the NAIA District 5 championship.